EA and DICE, in an effort to win back the game’s player base, finally started listening to comments from fans of BF2042 with regards to requested features and fixes. Season 1’s content and game tweaks have been a welcome development for fans of the game. Season 2 of Battlefield 2042 hopes to build on the progress the developers have made and is expected to drop around September 2022. Dataminers, intrigued by the recent patches, have again scoured the game’s files for clues on what the next season will bring to the game. A dataminer, who goes by the username temporyal, recently uncovered a map in the game’s files codenamed “Drained”. He posted his findings on Twitter along with some interesting details about the new location.
🌎 Stranded (aka “Drained”) The map involves a “clash over Gatun Lake”, which is an artificial lake in 🇵🇦 Panama (Middle America). No official images available. ⚠️ Speculation: The locks, the dam or a stranded ship could be points of interest. pic.twitter.com/eZEYn8Lxpu — temporyal (@temporyal) August 17, 2022 This is not the first time the dataminer has found new information regarding an upcoming update for BF2042.
Stranded / Drained
According to the leaked information, the new Battlefield 2042 Season 2 map is called Stranded and will be set in Panama. The leaker also mentions “a clash over Gatun Lake”. Gatun Lake is a freshwater artificial lake and is a major part of the Panama Canal. Some points of interest mentioned are the locks, dam, and a stranded ship. Players have reacted mainly to the stranded ship, pointing out that the last thing the game needs are more shipping containers. In another tweet, Temporyal also mentioned that two new boats were found in the game files.
— temporyal (@temporyal) August 17, 2022
New map confirmed
On August 3, DICE hosted a dev stream after the release of Battlefield 2042 Update 1.2, to discuss the changes that were made to the game. The video briefly discussed the future of Battlefield 2042. The developers were asked what they were excited about in Season 2. Shashank Uchil, the lead level developer of BF2042, responded by saying “I am super hyped for the new level we are going to release”. Viewers were quick to point out the phrase “new level” to mean that we are getting just one new map for Season 2. Uchil, in the video, repeated the phrase a couple more times which further solidifies the conclusion that the next season will get just one new map. The developers also mentioned that they have learned from the comments made by fans about the lack of cover in open areas of the map. The reworked map Renewal, which is part of Update 1.2, added a significant amount of cover and breaks to the line of sight.
Fans react to the leak
Some players aren’t too happy with the Stranded map leak. Loyal fans are expecting a lot more content out of the DICE title. One Reddit user reacted: “Map? As in singular map? As in only one Map? As in no more than one Map in the second season, a year after the game launched?” Other users seemingly echoed similar disappointment at having just a single map, going so far as accusing the developers of spreading the content to lessen the development costs. A Twitter user replied to the leaked map saying: “Only thing drained is the player base”. This is a jab at the rapid decline of the player count in Battlefield 2042 since the game first launched. EA and DICE have not confirmed the leak or made an announcement about Season 2.
